Singer-dancer Jackie Wilson, known as “Mr. Thrill”, was one of the pioneers of soul, RNB and rock ‘n’ roll music in America in the 1950s and 1960s. A brilliant and charismatic performer, a singer with a unique and versatile voice and a dancer who influenced the artists who came after him, led by Michael Jackson.
Wilson, who was one of the first black artists to break the glass ceiling and penetrate the heart of the mainstream, starred in numerous television shows and movies in the 1950s and 1960s and conquered the song charts with hits such as “Lonely Teardrops”, “Higher And Higher”, “That’s Why”, “Reete Petite”, “Baby Workout” and “To Be Loved” and was a symbol of the first revolution of soul music in America.
But alongside success he also had tragedies: his eldest son was killed at the age of 19 after a fight, he got into trouble with the law and was at the mercy of the Detroit mafia, lost his financial fortune and in 1975, during a live performance, suffered a heart attack, collapsed and went into a coma for eight years which he interrupted the musical career and ended his life in 1984 at the age of only 49.
In this episode of “Rockyam”, Dodi Fatimer returned to the fascinating story of Wilson, to his great hits and the tragedies that hovered around his glittering success like a black cloud.